Thursday, May 31, 2007

When I got back to the recovery room Dad was sitting up drinking coffee and having a piece of toast with jam. His nurse was there with him and they were talking. It looked like he had just dropped in for a coffee break.

His nurse turned out to be one of those little graces that you learn to appreciate in a sitution like this. She was a former customer of ours when we ran an urban gardening store in West Seattle. She looked after Dad and kept a close watch on him. She also told me that I might want to talk to his doctor about getting some more effective painkiller than the vicodin that he is taking now. She told me that Dad would be in recovery for about 20 more minutes..so I took this opportunity to go talk to his oncologist. Luckily Dr. Chen wasn't with a patient and came to talk to me right away. He said that he was amazed by the way that my Dad had taken his diagnosis the day before. I told him that I wanted to get ahead of the pain and find something a little more effective. He wrote me out a prescription for Oxycodone and I immediately took it to the clinic's pharmacy right away. Fifteen minutes and $103.65 later, I was on my way back to the Day Surgery recovery room to pick up Dad.

He was ready to go and off we went ...him in a wheelchair, me steering. After we got out of the parking garage, I drove him straight home. We sat down and had a fabulous chicken salad that Pamela had prepared for our lunch. Afterwards, I got Dad settled in him chair and went to do a little grocery shopping for Mom. I lucked out at KMart...found a foam mattress pad and some slippers on sale. The foam pad if for his half of the bed...he hasn't been able to comfortably sleep in his bed because his back has been hurting. The sandels are for his feet...they are so swollen that he has trouble getting on any shoes.

Last night, with the foam on his bed, he managed to sleep half of the night laying down. Today, I added a piece of fleece fabric to his chair to make it more comfortable. He is pretty thin and doesn't have a lot of muscle mass.

He seemed pretty out of it today...the new drug is really hitting him hard. Mom is also having a tough time. She kept asking me what day it is and the date. She is in a lot of pain with the shingles. Her eye is burning from the shingles on her optic nerve.

I managed to get dinner together...another wonderful quiche, cucumber slices, peach pie and ice cream. Dad's appetite remains good.

It is so hard to see him so small and frustrated by his inability to do anything. He has been a capable and positive person all his life. He is having a hard time making the transition to needing help to do most things. I just offer to do things and then let him decide. It always seems to work out well.

I am tired tonight...wondering how much longer I can be the one to provide the help they need. I worry that as Dad's condition worsens, it will be hard to get him and Mom to agree to hospice care.